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This material constitutes supporting material for the "Impact Evaluation in Practice" book. This additional material is made freely but please acknowledge its use as follows: Gertler, P. J.; Martinez, S., Premand, P., Rawlings, L. B. and Christel M. J. Vermeersch, 2010, Impact Evaluation in Practice: Ancillary Material, The World Bank, Washington DC (www.worldbank.org/ieinpractice). The content of this presentation reflects the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the World Bank. REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY Technical Track Session V (RD)

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Main Objective of an Evaluation (Reminder) For example: o What is the effect of an increase in the minimum wage on employment? o What is the effect of a school meals program on learning achievement? o What is the effect of a job training program on employment and on wages? Estimate the effect of an intervention D on a results indicator Y.

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Indexes are common in targeting of social programs Anti-poverty programs Pension programs Scholarships CDD programs targeted to households below a given poverty index. targeted to population above a certain age. targeted to students with high scores on standardized test. awarded to NGOs that achieve highest scores.

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Regression discontinuity When to use this method? o The beneficiaries/non-beneficiaries can be ordered along a quantifiable dimension. o This dimension can be used to compute a well-defined index or parameter. o The index/parameter has a cut-off point for eligibility. o The index value is what drives the assignment of a potential beneficiary to the treatment (or to non- treatment.) Intuitive explanation of the method: o The potential beneficiaries (units) just above the cut-off point are very similar to the potential beneficiaries just below the cut-off. o We compare outcomes for units just above and below the cutoff.

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Sharp and Fuzzy Discontinuity o The discontinuity precisely determines treatment o Equivalent to random assignment in a neighborhood o E.g. Social security payment depend directly and immediately on a person’s age Sharp discontinuity o Discontinuity is highly correlated with treatment. o E.g. Rules determine eligibility but there is a margin of administrative error. o Use the assignment as an IV for program participation. Fuzzy discontinuity

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Examples Effect of transfers on labor supply (Lemieux and Milligan, 2005) Effect of old age pensions on consumption: BONOSOL in Bolivia (Martinez, 2005) The Effects of User Fee Reductions on School Enrollment (Barrera, Linden and Urquiola, 2006)

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Example 1: Lemieux & Milligan: Incentive Effects of Social Assistance Social assistance to the unemployed: o Low social assistance payments to individuals under 30 o Higher payments for individuals 30 and over What is the effect of increased social assistance on employment?

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Example 2: Martinez: BONOSOL Old age pension to all Bolivians: o Pension transfer to large group of poor households o Pensions paid as of 2001 o Known eligibility criteria: 65+ years Have pre-(1999) and post-(2002) data on consumption Goal: Estimate effect of BONOSOL on consumption

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Potential Disadvantages of RD Local average treatment effects o We estimate the effect of the program around the cut-off point o This is not always generalizable Power: The effect is estimated at the discontinuity, so we generally have fewer observations than in a randomized experiment with the same sample size. Specification can be sensitive to functional form: Make sure the relationship between the assignment variable and the outcome variable is correctly modeled, including: (1) Nonlinear Relationships and (2) Interactions.

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Advantages of RD for Evaluation RD yields an unbiased estimate of treatment effect at the discontinuity Can take advantage of a known rule for assigning the benefit o This is common in the design of social interventions o No need to “exclude” a group of eligible households/ individuals from treatment

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Free schooling program Context Each year the government issues a resolution that stipulates: o Which items schools may charge for o The maximum fee they can set for each of those items These expenses are between 7 and 29 monthly dollars (between 6 and 25 percent of the minimum wage) The Gratuidad program: o Reduces some of these fees o Is targeted using the Sisben index o Sisben identifies the most vulnerable households in Colombia o The extent to which students benefit from these reductions is a function of their Sisben level

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What is Sisben? Sisben is an instrument used to focalize social assistance Based on a survey about households’ Using the score, each households is assigned to one of six “levels”, with 1 = the poorest and 6 = the richest Scores below a cutoff score of 11 Scores between 11 and 22 Scores between 22 and 43 First implemented in 1994 Each household receives a score between 0 and 100 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 o infrastructure, o demographics and o human capital.

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Regression discontinuity analysis Where is the discontinuity in the regression? Characteristics of the household (observable and unobservable) are continuously related to the score at the cutoff points Whether or not students benefit from the program is a discrete function of their score. They are similar for students just above and below the cutoff scores. Discrete differences in attendance rates between treated and untreated students close to the cutoff can be attributed to the fee reductions: Students with scores of 21.5 might provide an adequate control group for students with scores of 22.5

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Estimation The enrollment variable A dummy that capture the level of Sisben The score of Sisben Y i = α + βG i + ƒ(S i ) + ε ij y G S The basic equation for the estimation, close to the discontinuity, is the following: β will consistently estimate the effect of the program It can be estimated within arbitrarily narrow bands close to the cut-off point

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Validation of the RD strategy First: Second: o What are the properties of the assignment variable? o Is there a real discontinuity in assignment around the cutoff points of the score? o Is students’ raw Sisben score (0-100) a good predictor of their level of benefits? o What is the magnitude of exclusion and inclusion errors? o Are the characteristics of individuals smoothly around the cutoff points of the Sisben score? o E.g. are the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries similar around the cutoff points?